CHARLIE and Romana Prince were as sick as a parrot after Io, a blue-fronted Amazon, flew the nest last week.

But the couple’s misery turned to joy on Easter Day when parks police from Hammersmith and Fulham reunited them after he was spotted by the Thames as a spectator at the annual boat race between Oxford and Cambridge.

The six-year-old disappeared from his Burnfoot Avenue home in Fulham on March 28, when he flew off Charles’ shoulder at the back door, as he put the rubbish out.

Constable Tony Spyrou and Sergeant Ian Crow were patrolling in Bishops Park thee days later and saw a man surrounded by a group of people and a parrot drinking water from a bowl on the ground.

“The man had found Io by the play area and a woman then said she’d seen a poster in Parsons Green for a missing parrot,” said PC Spyrou. “So we got him in a box, though he put up a good fight, and found the address from the poster”

Romana was home at the time and delighted to have the feisty bird home, though the feeling was not mutual.

Romana is unable to go near Io without being attacked. She said: “Even though he was in desperate straits, Io took one look at me and went ‘urgh!’. He hates me but he loves the boys.”

She said: “We’d been out looking for him and calling his name. My husband and son, who is also called Charlie, had gone back out to look for him.”